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Platform Modernization

Data-Modernization Discovery for an Auto Dealer Group

Client: Headquarters of an auto-dealership group

Situation

At the headquarters of a dealer group, the HQ analysts closed the month in spreadsheets emailed from store controllers, keying numbers by hand for days after close, with no canonical store-level or roll-up data store.

Task

Run a focused discovery to design the data-engineering function and architecture that would replace the manual month-end close with an automated pipeline and a presentation layer the HQ team could use.

Action

Delivered a fixed-fee onsite discovery day, then a 90-day project plan off the back of it: interviewed the HQ analysts against a structured framework, mapped the controller-data ingestion, and architected an Azure SQL database, a Functions-based extraction pipeline, a blob store for raw files, and a custom Next.js cockpit behind Entra single sign-on. Deliberately not a lakehouse. Medallion and Spark patterns are premature complexity at monthly-close cadence and this data volume, and the team owns what ships on day 91.

Results

Transformation

Before: Month-end close run by hand in Excel

Store controllers emailed spreadsheets to HQ, where analysts keyed numbers for days after close with no canonical data store underneath.

  • Spreadsheets emailed in from every store
  • Days of manual keying after every close
  • No canonical store-level or roll-up data store
  • No in-house developers to build one

After: A 90-day build plan the in-house team can own

An Azure architecture with an extraction pipeline, a canonical database, and a custom analytics cockpit, scoped small enough that the HQ team operates it after handoff.

  • Functions-based extraction from controller emails
  • Azure SQL as the canonical store, no new vendors
  • Custom Next.js cockpit behind Entra single sign-on
  • Handoff plan so the team owns it on day 91

Key Metrics

Month-end close

Manual keying
Pipeline design

Data store

Emailed Excel
Azure SQL canonical model

Ownership

No build capacity
Team owns it at handoff

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